Voting to discriminate LGBTQIA+ people in relationships with 129 votes in favor and 0 against, the National Assembly of Senegal amended its Constitution to define marriage exclusively as “the union between a man and a woman”.
Same-sex intimacy has been criminalized in Senegal since 1965, but the country’s Constitution was previously vague on the subject.
Prior to the amendment, Article 17 of the Senegalese Constitution defined marriage as follows: “Marriage and the family constitute the natural and moral foundation of human society, and are placed under the protection of the State”.
An addendum has now been included: “Marriage is the union between a man and a woman”.
The amendment relies on antiquated binary assumptions by failing to provide definitions of what constitutes a man or a woman (that is, if this will be done in biological, chromosomal or anatomical terms). But the intent is clear: to ban LGBTQIA+ people, though also effectively marginalize intersex people in Senegal.
Recently, various anti-LGBTQIA+ developments have been happening in Senegal – e.g. in March, the penalty for same-sex intercourse was doubled to a maximum prison sentence to 10 years, while LGBTQIA+ rights advocacy was banned.
